Lone Star State, Day Four

Zoo and Nostalgia

Before moving to Maryland, we lived in Houston for ten years and part of this trip was planned to visit some of our old haunts. First up was the Houston Zoo. We visited there often when the boys were young, and it was a family favorite. It did not disappoint all of these years later. 

Below are some pictures of our day. BTW, get ready for a lot of animal pictures.😀

The zoo was busy with timed entries. We saw lots of strollers and kids on school field trips. but it was not too crowded to enjoy things. The field trip kids reminded me of when I went with Andrew here on his first grade field trip.

Galapagos tortoises

Orangutan

Baby Asian Elephant Kirby. She is a year and a half old.

Zoo humor elephant sculpture

Male African Lion

Female African lion

Ankole cattle

Malayan tiger. Even though this tiger weighs over 300 pounds, it looks just like a house cat when it's sleeping.

Cheetah 

Giraffes

Mongoose

Whooping crane. I had special interest in this bird since I recently read a book about Texas whooping cranes.

Bald eagle

After the zoo, we drove around our old neighborhood and found our former house. Both have aged well.

And we ended the day with some good Texas bbq. Ward had ribs and brisket and I had a baked potato.

Until next time...

Lone Star State-Day Three

 We took off this morning from Dallas (really Plano, suburb of Dallas) to head south to Houston. After we figured out the several complicated interchanges, we made it out of town to the open road. Goodness, this part of Texas is flat. Our first stop was Waco, a couple of hours down the road. Below are some pictures from there.

First stop was a place where they found several fossils for the now extinct Colombian mammoth. The original 13 complete mammoths they found were given to Baylor university.

Everything else has been left in place and is part of an active dig. If you study the picture you can make out the parts of the mammoth that died in place. At the very least, the tusks are easy to see. I was very excited to see the actual bones/fossils because in museums you usually see only models or plaster replicas. We also saw remains of an ancient camel, giant tortoise, and a saber-tooth tiger.

 

We also hiked a short trail that was part of an Eagle Scout Project. Wally and Theo are both Eagle Scouts and I've been around quite a few projects. However, this is the fanciest project sign I've ever seen.

Next up was the Brazos River Riverwalk in downtown Waco.

Ward wanted to see the historic Waco suspension bridge there.

I was happy to see the full-size bronze sculptures of a cattle drive.

The heat was building so we decided it was time to move inside with a visit to the Dr. Pepper museum. Dr. Pepper was invented by a young pharmacist, Charles Alderton, who mixed 26 flavors for the winning combination.

The museum was very well done and at the site of the former bottling plant.

At the end, we got a coupon for a free Dr. Pepper. Too bad that I can't stand the stuff, but Ward was happy.

And if you watch much HGTV, no visit to Waco would be complete without a visit to Chip and Joanna Gaines' Silos.

However, they are closed on Sunday.

Then we got on the road for a few more hours to Houston. We took the back roads looking for the famous Texas bluebonnets that are in bloom now. We saw many along the way. BTW, I think the camera did a pretty good job capturing these flowers at 60 mph.

It was another good, but tiring day.

Until next time...

Hello from the Lone Star State, Day one and two

Ward and I are in Texas on vacation where we are visiting with friends and being tourists. The days have been full, but good. I'll see what I have time to squeeze in here before it's time for bed.

Travel Day and Gardens

Our flight went off without a hitch. We signed up for TSA precheck to hopefully help with the long lines that are forming at airports these days. We didn't have to wait long in our lines, but the regular lines had only a normal wait.

We began our trip with a visit to 
long-time friends, C and M. We had planned to stay with them, but there were some last minute changes, so we stayed at a hotel nearby. Yesterday, we went to the Dallas Arboretum.
It was hard for Ward to get a word in edge-wise as C and I were catching up.

There were a lot of people enjoying the gardens even though it was in the 90s F.

At the gardens, the daffodils were done and the pansies and tulips were almost done blooming. It was interesting to compare that to the almost flowerless Maryland that we left.

This frog fountain was blocked off or I'm sure there would have been people in it to cool off.

Harvest sculpture

Even the tunnel from the parking garage to the gardens was colorful.

After a few hours, the heat was starting to get the best of us, so we headed back to C and M's house for more catching up and a great meal that C prepared.

Today was another busy day of travel and sightseeing as we made our way from Dallas to Houston. Next, time I will share with you what we found along the way.

Until next time...

A Change of Scenery

The snowdrops came up just in time to get snowed on the next day. We will be seeing warmer temperatures and more green during our trip. The first weekend is supposed to be in the 90s F.

 Ward and I are leaving soon on a trip to Texas. We will be visiting with a few friends and enjoying some touristy things along the way. We also plan to check out where we used to live to see how much things have changed. We've already figured out that our favorite neighborhood restaurants are out of business. We're sad about that, but are armed with a list of the best places to get Texas barbecue. 

I hope to be checking in here to share our adventures, but we'll see how often the opportunity occurs to do that. I will share some of our trip with you when we get back for sure. 

Now back to packing. It seems that we have several appointments between now and when we leave, so I'd better make hay while the sun shines.

Until next time...

Happy St. Patrick's Day

 Happy St. Patrick's Day

Irish dancers in a St. Patrick's Day parade in Washington, D. C. several years ago. Look carefully in the background, and you will see the Washington Monument.

Did you ever notice that this time of year, everyone seems to be part Irish? I claim the same thing, though I have some data to back it up. According to Ancestry, I'm about 40% Irish. Also, I know that at least one set of great-grandparents was born in Ireland. I think those two things qualify me to drink green beer and Shamrock shakes. Too bad that I don't like either one of those.

When I was a kid, St. Patrick's Day was "celebrated" by pinching kids who weren't wearing green. It wasn't until I was an adult that I wondered about this painful tradition. Supposedly, wearing green makes you invisible to leprechauns who may pinch you for fun. Or something like that. 

More dancers from the parade.

And it wasn't until fairly recently that I learned that some wear orange on St. Patrick's Day, especially in Northern Ireland. Protestants wear orange in honor of William of Orange, who defeated the Catholic King James II in the 1600s. Wearing orange is often used to make a religious or political statement. A former coworker said that her Irish in-law family was quite adamant that Orange was the color for St. Patrick's Day.

And BTW, who was St. Patrick anyway? Not being Catholic, I never studied saints and have never been quite sure. But my trusty computer says that he lived in the 5th century and is credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland. That's a little different from what I had heard previously, that St. Patrick rid Ireland of snakes. Apparently, there have never been snakes in Ireland, and snake banishing is some kind of metaphor.

And what St. Patrick's Day Parade would be complete without Irish wolfhounds?

And how am I spending this St. Patrick's Day? This morning, I got my hair cut, and this afternoon was spent at the DMV. However, I did wear a green shirt to both of those outings. :)

Did you do anything to celebrate St. Patrick's Day?

Until next time...